Parish Polls
There was a public meeting in Morley on Monday, to discuss whether Morley should elect a Mayor rather than just appoint one from one of the ParishTown Councillors to be Chairman and Mayor as well. It seems the vote was 14 for, 16 against and 4 abstentions. However it only takes ten electors to demand a Parish Poll according to the Local Government Act 1972 so the Town Council now has to go to the Leeds City Council electoral office to organise one which will cost a five figure sum.
It occurs to me that Parish Councils could easily be driven into negative cashflow by a concerted action of vexatious parishioners. It is a shame it isn’t being held on one of the big issues of the day though.
***Update: The Morley Obtiser story is now online HERE***
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:57 pm
You could have mentioned they are non-binding, just a mere test of public opinion.
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:04 pm
I was hoping to link in to Morleytoday which should explain that, but it isn’t working at the mo.
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:40 pm
It is more the handling of the meeting that concerned me. There was a majority of people in favour of the petition. Yet on the only reason for the meeting, and it was bungled. Either through incompetence or some other reason.
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:40 am
The law governing citizens’ referendum and parish polls should be re-written (Local Government Act 1972 and subsequent regulations).
Reforms which we suggest:
1) Apply the “initiative and referendum” procedures in cities, counties, towns, districts as well as parishes.
2) Increase the proportion of residents who must approve a proposal in order to trigger a referendum (or “poll”). This might be, say one in ten voters for a small parish, and one in a hundred for a town (a sliding scale is available). This would give more weight to a citizens’ proposal (at present as few as ten people can trigger a poll).
3) Also set a reasonable period of time to collect endorsements.
4) Let the elected council debate the proposal and put forward an alternative, approve or reject it.
5) The result of the referendum is treated like a law or order passed by the elected council (so that all powers held by a council may be exercised).
More about proposals for democracy reform can be found at http://www.iniref.org
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Thanks for that, “I&R”
July 3rd, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Surely it should be more than 50% at a meeting.
I agree that there is no reason why 10 people or even 10% should be able to do something, like force a poll, that could cost thousands.
July 3rd, 2008 at 6:51 pm
IandR wrote: 2) Increase the proportion of residents who must approve a proposal in order to trigger a referendum (or “poll”).
Nigel wrote: Surely it should be more than 50% at a meeting.
I agree that there is no reason why 10 people or even 10% should be able to do something, like force a poll, that could cost thousands.
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Just to clarify: We are suggesting that the rules for citizens’ poll (parish, town etc.) should be brought in line with fairly standard procedures. There are many examples, e.g. in Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, USA. The only example in UK is the petition for referendum about “boss mayor”, form of local council, for which at least 5 percent of electors have to sign.
Endorsements (signatures) for a proposal can be collected over a longer period from all registered voters, not only those who attend a parish meeting.
Regarding costs of polls and referenda, these estimates should be critically checked. Also, the issues even in parish affairs can involve spending hundreds of thousands of public pounds.